Dutchess County Fair to feature Hudson Valley stitchers, needleworkers

Jun 14, 2023

One stitch at a time, hour after hour, executed with nimble fingers, young and old.

That’s what it takes to create the more than 500 items that are entered in the Needlework and Stitchery category at the Dutchess County Fair each year.

Hats, shawls, sweaters, vests, mittens, quilts and more are made by folks ages 6 to 80-plus, all with the hopes of a blue ribbon to show for their efforts.

The 174th Dutchess County Fair starts Tuesday.

For six days, some 400,000 people will stroll the nearly 150-acre site that features thousands of farm animals, agricultural exhibits, horticultural displays, talent shows and the many competitions that local folk enter — from vegetables, culinary delights, hobbies and crafts to fine arts, antiques and needlework and stitchery.

For many, it is like homecoming week, where friends meet every year, especially those with a shared love of the needle arts.

Just ask Eileen Travis, who co-chairs with Marie Dunne, Department 909 — Needlework and Stitchery.

“I love that people want to make beautiful items with love and pass them along to someone who needs and will cherish them,” Travis said about the many entrants that donate their work to those in need after the fair closes. “I love that chairs from previous years always stop back to see our display each year. We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful group of dedicated volunteers that we get to see every year.”

Travis said there are entire families that enter the needlework and stitchery competition.

“Seeing the skills passed along from mother to daughter to grandchild is what continuing the tradition of needlework is all about — making sure that these traditional needlework skills are not lost to history,” said Travis, who has been volunteering in that department for 17 years.

This year, some 548 items were entered and cover a gamut of projects. One year, an entrant made a Barbie dollhouse from patterned yarn worked on plastic canvas.

“It was incredible and we needed a 6-foot-table just to display it,” Travis said. “We have also received amazing Fair Isle knitted items and lace shawls out of featherweight yarns that seemed to float on air. Once we got a crocheted wedding dress. Needless to say, many, many hours of work go into each and every item we have received.”

So if you’re heading to the fair this week, stop in Building E and check out the work made by the following stitchers and needleworkers:

When Diana Rush and her family moved from Massachusetts to Staatsburg nine years ago, she found out about the Dutchess County Fair from the people who sold them the house.

“They told us about an orthodontist, a pediatrician and the fair — the three most important things to know,” said Rush, the mother of six who homeschools her children with her husband Dennis.

The whole family gets into the act when it comes to submitting hobby and craft entries for the fair. The crafts are also part of the lesson plans for homeschooling.

“We have fun with it,” she said. “We make a big chart and then cross off (the project) when we finish from our registration list.”

Rush said she submits several knitting projects and enjoys the Lion Brand Scarf Challenge, which is a sponsored competition by the yarn maker. She has made knitted doll clothes, toys, hats and scarves; cross-stitch ornaments and framed work as well as latch hook projects.

“I love the Lion Brand competition,” Rush said. “I like to make the scarves and donate them. The Staatsburg Library collects them and donates them.”

And then there are the award ribbons as a result of their efforts.

“The very first year I got the Chairman’s Choice for cross-stitch and my husband got it for sculpture,” she said about her husband’s sculptures made from recycled items. “It was exciting. I didn’t know what that meant, but it was kind of fun that we both got it together.”

All of their children — Daisy, Scarlet, Harper, Leo, Oliver and Ginger — know how to knit and make latch hook rugs.

Ginger Rush, 12, said she learned how to knit and stitch from her grandmother, Wendy.

This year she will enter a latch hook pillow and a purse that she sewed.

“It makes me happy,” Ginger Rush said about crafting.

She said she enjoys being at the fair when it gets dark and seeing the carnival rides colorfully illuminated. She also likes to visit with the animals.

But the most fun is seeing her projects on display and if there are any award ribbons attached to them.

“Hopefully most of them will be blue,” Ginger Rush said.

Peggy Norton has been sewing since she was in middle school, a skill she learned in home economics that still inspires her today.

“My mother made a lot of my clothes growing up, so I picked it up,” said the 62-year-old Hyde Park resident. “My mom was a big knitter and crocheter, so I learned from watching her.”

With two sisters, Norton said her mom kept busy making clothes for the three girls.

“I remember the year I was in fourth grade — my older sister was in fifth and my younger in first grade — she made all our Easter dresses,” Norton said. “They were all pink but different styles.”

It was an aunt who was a folk artist who inspired Norton to enter her work in the county fair.

“My aunt did faux painting; rug hooking and made quilts; and always entered the Wyoming (County) Fair,” she said. “I thought, why shoot, I should enter some stuff in the fair.”

And so she did.

One year she made a denim-style jacket with patch pockets out of toile, an intricately printed fabric.

“I cut everything so the print design matched across the front of the jacket,” she said. “It has buttons that overlap and was perfect — it had the same motif on both sleeves.”

For that she won the Chairman’s Choice Award and a First Place ribbon for Best of Sewing.

This year she plans on entering a handmade blouse, sleeveless dress and a knitted sweater.

In her customized home sewing room, Norton, a retired IBM’er who worked in information technology systems, has a collection of sewing machines.

“My main workhorse is one I bought new in 1981; it’s not computerized — a Pfaff — that’s my baby,” she said. “I also have a 1952 Singer Featherweight; those are very popular among quilters. It’s an old straight stitch machine — very small — I use it to make quilts.”

A member of the American Sewing Guild, Norton said since she started entering items in the fair, she publicizes that to her guild chapter, which includes about 80 members.

“I encourage them to sign up and enter,” she said,” and slowly we’re getting another person or two to enter from the guild.”

Norton said she enjoys seeing the items she diligently worked on admired by others and acknowledged for a job well done.

“When I first started this, I thought if maybe I put in some of my things it would encourage others who attend the fair to start sewing,” Norton said. “We lost a lot of that by not teaching it in school any more.”

Young quilter

Alyssa Fredericks learned how to knit and sew from her grandmother, Faith Cousens. Two years ago she received a sewing machine as a gift and the first quilt she ever made and entered in the Dutchess County Fair last year won Best in Show for her age group.

“I like how if you like to sew and some projects turn out really cool, you’re proud of yourself when you are done,” said the 11-year-old Clinton Corners resident.

Her grandmother took her shopping to buy fabric for this year’s project.

“I saw the dog fabric and wanted to make it out of that,” Alyssa Fredericks said about the colorful designs of doggie treats, collars, paw prints and pooches that alternate with solid fabrics in her chevron pattern quilt.

She and her brother, Kyle, 9, are encouraged by mom, Amie, and dad, Ken, to be creative.

“Both are doing latch hook kits,” Amie Fredericks said. “They use short pieces of yarn and follow patterns similar to needlework.”

Kyle saw examples of latch work at the fair, which inspired him to give it a try.

“He read the pattern all on his own and figured out the symbols,” Amie Fredericks said. “It’s a good activity for him to do.”

Alyssa Fredericks said she plans on making a quilt every year to enter in the fair.

“It feels really awesome,” she said about finding an award ribbon attached to her entry. “You feel proud of yourself.”

Charlotte Apuzzo has been entering her knitting and crochet projects in the Dutchess County Fair for the past 30 years. Her children, Zachary, 21, and Hannah, 18, also enter crafts.

You could say the fair is like a family reunion for them.

That’s because their family runs Raphael’s Talent Search, one of the mainstay features at the fair.

“My dad started it in 1961,” Charlotte Apuzzo said. “My family has always been involved. It’s a nice family get-together — we see all the cousins.”

Apuzzo said she and her children would take a break from the talent tent and run over to the crafts building to see their work.

“Hannah made a capelet one year and won Best in Show,” she said.

Apuzzo said she enjoys seeing what other people enter in the fair and what they think of her work, “and to challenge yourself to do better.”

Apuzzo, who learned how to knit and crochet when she was around 10 from her grandmother, Helen Rounds, has many award ribbons to her credit. This year, she will enter a crocheted hat and scarf, and knitted hat, scarf and mittens.

She taught her son how to crochet when he was a 4-H member.

“He always saw the organist at our church (Bruce Barrett of Pleasant Plains Presbyterian) crocheting,” Apuzzo said about her son who recently graduated from the State University of New York at Oswego with a degree in history.

Zachary Apuzzo, who also does pottery, will enter a maroon scarf he crocheted this year.

“One time, Zachary made a Boston Red Sox pillow and some people noticed it and said they were a fan,” she said. “Others said, ‘Oh, I can’t believe he didn’t make a Yankees pillow.’ ”

Barbara Gallo Farrell: [email protected]; 845-437-4979; Twitter: @PJBarb

The Dutchess County Fair is open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Aug. 20-25 at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, 6636 Route 9, Rhinebeck. General admission is $15 ($10, Aug. 20; $7, after 5 p.m., Aug. 22); $8, seniors 65 and older; $8, military; 845-876-4000; dutchessfair.com

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